Homeless Bunny (RWBY/Campione)

Homeless Bunny 20

Tianyu Yue

In the end, I decided I wouldn’t be going on a one man crusade against the corrupt policemen of Vale. Amber, reasonably, pointed out that it wouldn’t be right to hold them all responsible for one idiotic talking head. Worse, if I pulled his entrails out of his anus, I’d only be validating everything he said about me.

I’d be a terrorist in truth, someone who incited fear among the populace for the sake of a political agenda. Or, that’s what Fortuna told me it meant. Apparently the world had a very specific definition in political science.

That didn’t stop me from getting back at him in more subtle ways. That was why, after a lovely dinner of street tacos made by yours truly, I’d decided on a quick walk through the Emerald Forest.

“Tianyu?”

“Yes, Amber?”

“Why are we out in the Emerald Forest again?”

I shrugged nonchalantly. “You? I’m not sure. You could have stayed back with the twins. I’m out here for revenge.”

She let out an exaggerated sigh. “I was afraid you’d say that. You promised not to do anything.”

“Correction: I promised not to hurt him or take out my annoyance on anyone else. Those are very specific promises.”

“I’m afraid to ask but fine, I’ll bite. What are you going to do?”

“Did you come out here just to make sure I wouldn’t go off on a murder spree?”

“No? I don’t think you’ll actually kill anyone, but I don’t want you to make things worse by doing something drastic.”

I nodded. I placed a warm hand on her shoulder. “You’re a good person, Amber.”

She flushed, “I’m not. You just worry me sometimes.”

“Have some faith in your team leader. I’m not a monster.”

“Fine, I’ll try. Go on then, leader. What are you going to do?”

I smirked. “Well, the big problem with getting back at that asshole is that anything I do will make the faunus look bad and validate what he’s saying about me, right?”

“And you might upset your ‘little sister,’” Amber pointed out. Which… was a fair point. I was trying to help Weiss. Being an overt tyrant about this would ruin what rapport I’d built with her, especially considering her family’s history with the White Fang. I couldn’t act publicly.

I truly was grateful for Amber. She was quickly turning into the voice of reason on Team Tamale. Without her, I doubted I’d have considered Weiss at all. I had some general plans, half-baked ideas, really, but those could have gone up in smoke had I allowed the twins to goad me into something because we found it funny.

“You’re right. I need to act with a bit more tact in this case. I won’t go rampaging across Vale because some dumbass took a shot at me,” I promised. I dug into my enchanted bag and pulled out one street taco, one made exclusively of vegan options just for this purpose. Really, it was more of a garden spring roll than anything. “Now, that doesn’t mean I’m not going to make his life miserable.”

Amber’s brow rose in disapproval. Despite this, she couldn’t help the curious gleam in her eyes. “With food?”

“By anointing a proxy. I am a Campione, the Seventh King. I don’t need to go out of my way to kick every yipping dog.” So saying, I turned my gaze to the forest beyond and raised my voice. “Child of the forest, child beloved by the moon, come. Come that I might anoint you to a higher purpose. Come and receive the blessings of your king.”

My words rang throughout the clearing. My magic echoed throughout, carried upon the evening breeze like the fragrance of wildflowers. It was the proclamation of a king, the king of rabbits who reigned from the Lunar Palace. It would be obeyed.

Sure enough, we didn’t have to wait long for a bunny to arrive. It was a small, cute thing, with black hair and brown eyes.

“Aww, so cute. What? Are you going to drown him in cuddles?”

“Hush, you. Just watch.”

I held out the enchanted street taco. I’d made sure to bless it with the same gifts I’d bestowed upon Don Fluffles once upon a time. Said blessing had allowed her to rival the greatest superheroes of my world and defeat seasoned mage-knights in single combat with embarrassing ease.

Though my primary Authority was diminished, even half of what she had would be more than sufficient for his task. After all, not all my Authorities were tied to the moon.

Then, as my new familiar gorged himself on this treat, I placed a hand upon him and began to chant.

“The soul is bound by but one word. The heart kindled by a whisper in the wind. Hear the ode to your life and death. All that is woven in the Grand Tapestry lies at the tip of my tongue, the Power of the Name!”

The rabbit shone with a brilliant golden light. The light wove itself into intricate hieroglyphs before settling in the shape of a sun disc held between a cow’s horns. This was the symbol of Isis, the mother of Horus, Protector of Pharaohs. She was revered as the goddess of medicine and magic and had manifested above New York when the Metropolitan Museum of Art raided one of her temples for an exhibit.

She had been an absolute bitch to fight. Not only was she an immensely powerful sorceress, she was devilishly cunning. She’d also held a bit of the sun’s light, a direct counter to my own, lunar-based Authorities. I’d won in the end, but not without scars. It wasn’t until sixty years later in the netherworld that she apologized for her actions in the mortal plane.

As I watched, a reed pen formed in my hand out of the same golden light. The Power of the Name referenced Isis’ legend of usurpation, in which she coaxed Ra into telling her his true name and in doing so, paved the way for her son Horus to reign.

If I wrote someone’s name onto the sun disc, I could steal from them, whoever it was, whatever it was. I’d used it in the past to directly rob Authorities from heretic gods.

But that wasn’t all this Authority could do. It wasn’t like Isis’ mastery of true names was restricted to divine kleptomania. In the event that a creature had no name, I could name them myself. In doing so, a bit of my mana would be imparted onto them, uplifting them with human-like intelligence and speech. Paired with the Peach Blossom Alchemy, this little bunny would be a menace.

I heard Amber gasp in wonder. As I understood it, magic in this world tended to be strictly elemental. Though Amber had plenty of power in her own right, she’d likely never seen anything like this before.

“Say, Amber?”

“Y-Yeah?”

“What should we call this bunny?”

“Oh, you’re asking me?”

“Why not? For the record, I named my last bunny Don Fluffles.”

“That’s adorable. Should we stick with the mafia theme?”

“Hmm, I suppose that’s fine. I have a don. The don is the head of the famiglia. There can only be one don,” I muttered to myself. “What is the rank beneath a don? An underboss? Underboss Thumper?”

“That doesn’t sound right,” she said. “It’s too long.”

“Capo Cottontail?”

“Well… I like the alliteration, but it’s still a mouthful. How about Capo Cuddles?”

I snorted in laughter and scribbled the name onto the sun disc. “I love it. Rise, Capo Cuddles, first of the Moonlit Famiglia on Remnant.”

My magic swirled around him. Isis’ golden sigil broke apart into motes of light and sank into his midnight fur. As the light was absorbed into his body, he grew and grew until he was as large as a retriever.

“Capo Cuddles, do you understand your purpose?” I asked, doing my best to stifle my giggles.

“Aye, godfather. Some dirty pig’s been talking shit,” he said gruffly. “Ya want me to go break his kneecaps?”

“What? No!” Amber gasped. She whirled on me with a look conflicted with betrayal and laughter. “You’re not going to go assault the detective!”

“Ey, godfather, this is why women shouldn’t be in this line of work. No mettle, ya know? No grit.”

“What? You-”

“Look here, doll, sometimes, ya gotta dig through shit if ya want the carrot.”

“Doll?” she whispered dangerously. The wind stilled until an eerie calm descended upon the clearing. “I’ll show you grit, you upjumped-”

I coughed to get their attention. Truthfully? I wasn’t sure who’d win if the two fought. “Enough, no fighting. Capo Cuddles, this is your first big job. You are to consider this a stealth mission. Do not be discovered. You will not assault anyone. Your goal is not to harm Detective Powers in any way. Instead, you are going to do everything in your power to make his life as inconvenient as possible. Do you understand?”

Capo Cuddles thought about that for a minute. His hind leg began to thump against the grass as a distinctly malicious grin crossed his face. “Heh, I hear ya, godfather. You’re playing the long game, eh? I can do that.”

“Good. Go.”

Then, Capo Cuddles all but vanished into a blur, his speed and dark fur more than enough to blend in with the shadows.

Did I create a divine beast for the sole purpose of getting back at a shit-talking detective? Yes.

Was it petty as fuck? Yes.

I didn’t care. I wasn’t a terrorist, damn it!

X

Amber Gale

“You won’t believe what Tianyu did,” I said as I walked into the gym. Our fluffy team leader said he’d start training the twins tomorrow, but that didn’t mean they didn’t have their own routines.

I was mildly surprised to find them here, sparring against one another on the practice mats. There were a few more people here, but the twins had managed to secure one of the private rooms for themselves. They were more diligent than their attitudes implied. Then again, they were bodyguards and assassins. Physical fitness was probably a mandatory part of their jobs.

“What are you-Hey!” Melanie turned to face me, but yelped as her twin snuck a quick jab into her shoulder. That slight moment of surprise let her get in two more punches and a knee between the legs, sending the white twin sprawling to the ground. She moaned in pain as she waited for her aura to kick in. It could ease the pain but would do nothing for her wounded pride. “Oh, you bitch.”

“Your fault for getting distracted,” Miltia said smugly as she pretended to study her nails. “So, what’s up, country girl?”

“Ugh. Yeah, what’d our fearless leader do now?”

“Wow, you’re vicious,” I said. “That was…”

“Cheap? Dirty? Yeah, Miltia’s a bitch like that,” Melanie grumbled, tenderly sitting up.

The red twin scoffed. “As if you wouldn’t do the same. Look, country girl, the only rule we have is that there are no rules. No one gives a damn about fighting fair when your life’s on the line.”

“She’s right. Scratch eyes. Bite. Throw dirt. Kick her in the cunt. We decided everything is fair game as long as we both get to come home in the end.”

My mind wandered to the three who’d assaulted me a few months back. Had I fought with the intent to kill from the very beginning, could I have beaten them? I knew now that one had an illusionary Semblance, but I’d overcome it for a time. Hell, I’d almost killed the green one before I literally got stabbed in the back. I’d gotten serious far too late in the game.

“I understand,” I told them. “I think I wouldn’t have needed Tianyu’s help if I'd been more ruthless. I don’t think that’s for me though. I don’t want to be the kind of person who jumps straight to killing.”

The white twin shrugged. “You get to say that because you’re strong. You have literal fucking magic on your side so you can afford to be nice.”

“Not always,” I admitted. “I almost died. No, I did die. I had my soul split in half. If that isn’t death, I don’t know what is.”

“So get better,” the red one said with a nonchalant shrug. Despite her dismissive tone, there was an unnerving intensity in her eyes. “Mercy is the luxury of the strong. You want to be a good girl? Fine, get stronger. So strong that leaving your enemies alive won’t matter because there’s no way in hell they’ll become threats.”

“That’s a lot harder than it sounds,” I said with a wry smile.

“Is it? You have magic. Real magic, not a Semblance,” Melanie said with absolute certainty. “There was a time not long ago when we would have killed you for the Maiden powers. Miltia and I would have jumped you and slit your throat, probably in bed or when you’re in the shower, just so one of us could have your power.”

“A-And now?”

“Now we have something more to look forward to. You’re strong, stronger than damn near anyone else in the world, but Tianyu’s stronger. And he promised to make us strong too.”

“Your power can only go to one person,” Miltia added. “Tianyu? Whatever bullshit he’s doing? It’s for both of us.”

I realized then. I’d always figured they were close, but it struck me in that moment just how deeply they cared for each other. “You really love each other, don’t you?”

The pair of them scoffed identically, perfect mirrors of one another. Then they locked eyes and shared some secret message that made them smile.

Melanie snorted. “Miltia’s a bitch.”

“Like you’re one to talk,” Miltia shot back.

“But she’s my bitch,” the two said as one.

We shared a comfortable moment of silence between us. They were acerbic and cruel, petty and impulsive, but they were more than they seemed. I thought, in that moment, I could maybe see why Tianyu had decided to take them under his wing.

“So, what’d our fluffy overlord do now?” Melanie asked.

“Oh, right! Okay, you’re not going to believe this…”

The three of us chatted long into the evening. The idea that there was a Moonlit Famliglia now had the twins rolling on the ground laughing. That there was apparently a “Don Fluffles” who stood above “Capo Cuddles” had us in a moment of silent prayer for the people of Tianyu’s world.

After catching them up on the single most amazing use of magic I’d ever witnessed, I tried my hand at sparring… and promptly had my ass kicked. Without resorting to magic, I was only a moderately competent fighter. I didn’t think I was strictly worse than either twin, but I found it nearly impossible to deal with their underhanded tactics. They poked at my eyes, pulled my hair, and fought like drowning cats.

We were a mess of bruises by the end of it. I’d gotten the hang of their fighting style as we went on and gotten in a few good hits of my own. The three of us lied on the ground, trying to catch our breaths.

“You know Tianyu is going to make this feel like a morning jog?” Miltia said.

“Don’t remind me,” Melanie grumbled. “Brothers, we’re so fucked.”

“Mage, I’ll be off practicing my ‘Semblance,’ thanks,” I said, not a little smugly.

“Bitch.”

“Brat.”

“Heh. You’re alright, country girl.”

Surprisingly, I was starting to feel the same way about these two.

Author's Note

Thank you for reading. Believe it or not, this is the seventh website I've crossposted to. I want to make sure this site catches up with the others, but it's slow, tedious work. Until then, other sites will have a much more updated library of my works. If you want to read ahead, or check out other stories I've written, you can find them all on my Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/fabled.webs.